2025-08-06 20:59:37Wasting not a second, Viridian's body became a blur as he darted through the chamber.
He rummaged through a wooden crate for a few rotten but still sturdy planks, and tore several of the toughest tendons by hand from the crocodile's corpse.
His movements were precise and efficient; in his mind he had already assembled a flawless sequence of linked kills.
Step one: the tripwire.
He fashioned a tripwire from sinew that blended almost seamlessly with the filth on the ground, one end tied to the trigger of the hunter's hand crossbow he’d found in the crate.
The crossbow was cleverly wedged with stones in an ideal firing position, the bolt smeared with the fetid, necrotic blood of the giant crocodile—enough to cause septicemia.
The arrowhead was aimed precisely at the entrance of the passage, at the most vulnerable adult spot: the lower calf.
Step Two: the bait.
When everything was set, he picked up a sharp shard of stone and struck the metal door of the alchemical gate hard.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The crisp, ringing impacts carried far through the empty sewer, perfectly simulating the illusion that someone was violently breaking the door down.
Step three: the hunting position.
After finishing all that, he didn't hide by the trap; instead he quickly retreated to the deepest part of the chamber and melted into a dark corner piled with junk.
This was a blind spot for sight and an acoustic dead zone.
He became like a statue fused with the darkness, completely holding in his breath and heartbeat, waiting patiently.
The crying behind the wall stopped abruptly.
The man who had been assaulting her also ceased his movements.
Immediately after, a hoarse, contorted male voice came from behind the wall, tinged with caution and bewilderment: "Who? Who's there? Did Lord Wugu send you?"
Viridian did not respond.
Silence spread through the darkness.
Finally, after about five minutes, a distinctly different set of footsteps came from the distant sound of water in the sewer.
The steps were light, making almost no splash in the foul water, and approached the alchemy gate in an extremely cautious manner.
Bait taken.
A hunter-like excitement flashed through Viridian's crimson eyes.
Footsteps halted at the gate.
The newcomer was extremely cautious, lingering at the door for a full half-minute, as if confirming something.
After a moment's hesitation, the possible secrets hidden in the chamber ultimately overcame his caution.
A foot in a leather boot slowly stepped into the trap’s range.
Whoosh!
The taut beast tendons were triggered in an instant!
A steel crossbow bolt smeared with giant crocodile necrotic blood cut a line of death through the air, accurately striking the newcomer’s calf!
"Plop!"
A muffled sound as a sharp blade sank into flesh.
Immediately followed by a suppressed grunt and the thud of a heavy body hitting the ground.
But Viridian did not move an inch.
A true "survivor king" always defaults to treating his enemy as a "full-health Oscar winner."
He waited quietly, like a lifeless, cold rock.
After a full minute, he finally heard the sound of the other's armor scraping as they struggled to rise, and a low curse.
The moment had come.
He slid out of the shadows like a wraith, appearing soundlessly in the center of the chamber. The second crossbow bolt in his hand was already cocked, the cold tip aimed at the struggling figure.
The newcomer was a mercenary in tattered leather armor, broad-shouldered, with a face full of battle scars and a fierce glare.
At this moment, a bolt was lodged in his left leg, the coppery blood staining his trousers and making him look utterly disheveled.
He glanced around in terror, and when he saw Veridian—emerging as if from the dark, clad in shabby noble finery, his face pale but his eyes terrifyingly bloodshot—his face was written over with unbelieving horror.
"Who are you? What is a noble like you doing in the sewers?" the mercenary barked, all bluster and no backbone, one hand furtively seeking the dagger at his waist.
A faint blue panel popped up before Viridian's eyes at the right moment.
[Detected target soul tainted by "Sin": Greed (Level 2), Slaughter (Level 2), Lust (Level 3)]
Confirmation complete.
Viridian was always too lazy to bother with the "experience points" that come from walking.
He pulled the trigger with an expressionless face.
Whoosh!
The second bolt tore through the air, with precise calculation, piercing the mercenary's other leg and pinning him to the ground, completely stripping him of any ability to move!
"Ah!"
This time, the agony was too much for the mercenary to hold back, and he let out a piercing, mournful scream.
The scream sounded like a signal.
The sobbing from behind the wall rose again, laced with a hint of hope and urgency.
At the same time, that hoarse male voice again shouted excitedly, "Finish him! Hurry and finish him! That bastard is one of 'Butcher' Wugu's men! Kill him and Lord Wugu will surely reward you handsomely!"
Viridian ignored the noisy incitement behind the wall and, step by step, unhurriedly walked toward the mercenary who lay on the ground, utterly despairing.
The mercenary frantically brandished the dagger in his hand, making a final, desperate struggle.
Viridian couldn't be bothered to dodge; he casually lifted his foot and with precise aim kicked the dagger hand at the wrist.
With a crisp "crack," the dagger slipped from his hand and flew out, landing in the filthy water.
In the face of absolute disparity in strength and overwhelming calm, all struggling seemed so absurd.
Fear filled the mercenary's eyes; he watched those increasingly near, emotionless crimson eyes and felt the certainty of death.
The next instant, sharp fangs pierced his thick neck.
A scorching torrent, mixed with sin and vitality, poured into Viridian's body like a river breaching its banks!
[Ding! [Blood Drain] proficiency +75!]
[Ding! [Pain Endurance] proficiency +60!]
[Ding! [Holy Light Resistance] proficiency +50!] [Ping! [Blunt Resistance] proficiency +80! Current: 388/400 → 468/400!] It worked.A flood of proficiency notifications washed over his panel like a waterfall.
He could feel clearly how every inch of his muscles, every bone, was being reforged under the onslaught of that power!
Yet the real surprise had only just begun!
Just as he drained the last drop of the mercenary's blood, an unprecedented prompt, suffused with a dazzling, utterly brilliant golden radiance, exploded before his eyes!
[Ding! Detection: Skill [Resilience Against Blows] proficiency, under massive experience infusion, has broken through the current level cap!]
[[Resilience Against Blows] proficiency has reached MAX!]
[Conditions met. Initiating talent metamorphosis!]
[Congratulations, host! You have obtained a second permanent talent: {Talent · Damage Absorption (Basic)}!]
[Talent · Damage Absorption (Basic)]: Passive talent. Your bodily structure has undergone a qualitative change, allowing a portion of incoming blunt damage to be converted into your own vitality for recovery.
Viridian's body trembled violently; an indescribable rapture exploded from the depths of his soul!
After [Hardened Skin], his second pillar of immortality had been forged!
That meant that when an enemy struck him with a blunt weapon, not only would it fail to inflict any real harm, it would actually “heal” him!
He glanced at the mercenary collapsing to the ground, already dried into a husk, wiped the corner of his mouth with a certain elegance, then kicked him into the pitch-dark sewage current beside them.
Destroying the body and covering tracks was an instinct etched into Gou Wang’s genes.
After he finished, the voices behind the wall—shaken by the brutal scene—fell into a deathlike silence.
Silence lasted a long time.
Just when Viridian thought the other had been scared out of his wits, the hoarse male voice suddenly sounded again in a completely different tone, filled with awe and frenzy.
"Powerful, too powerful!"
"My lord! You must be some noble of the vampire clans! Please save me! I'm not human — I'm the 'Butcher' Wugu's mortal enemy, a subordinate of the 'Fungus Lord'!"
"Just save me and I'll tell you where the 'Butcher' Wugu's true lair is! He hid the 'Essence of Sin' he's amassed over ten years there! That alone would be enough to double your power again!"
Viridian's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
His crimson eyes suddenly erupted with an unprecedented light.
Essence of Sin?
Double his power, once more?
He slowly turned around and looked at the cold stone wall, a pleased and dangerous smile spreading across his mouth.
Now, this was truly going to be interesting.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 128: Voyage Through the Void — The Shards of Law Amid the Sea of Stars
The moment the Expedition pierced the barrier, the world before Veridian changed completely.There were no stars. No light. No shadow.This was the universe’s reverse side—the scrapyard of laws.Everywhere he looked, a storm of fractured principles swirled—a tempest of radiant chaos.Broken chains of causality writhed like serpents of lightning through the void,while shards of shattered time flickered,casting phantoms of past and future.This was true nothingness—a realm so unstable that even void itself could not hold form.The conceptual ark, Expedition, drifted across this chaotic ocean like a solitary leaf.Any single storm of law could have torn it apart,reducing it to the rawest fragments of concept—to absolute erasure.Veridian stood at the bow, Lilith held gently in his arms.His scarlet eyes were tranquil,showing not
Chapter 127: The Clash of Laws — The Barrier of Nihility and the Primordial Light
The direct confrontation with the Supreme Being began earlier than anyone could have foreseen—and in a way no one could have imagined.Veridian hovered before the deck of the Expedition, Lilith held tightly in his arms.His scarlet eyes gazed calmly at the unseen barrier that stretched across the void before him.[ACCESS DENIED]The command—woven from the pure concept of Termination—was cold, absolute, undeniable.Go around it?There was no point.On the level of law, the barrier had no thickness, and yet it was omnipresent.It did not seal off space—it sealed off the very concept of advancement.Veridian’s expression remained utterly still.He understood well: this was Nihility’s final warning—and a test.A test of how much worth this newly crowned Lord of Law truly possessed.To retreat would mean e
Chapter 126: The Descent of the Void — Expedition to the Primordial Land
Viridian did not summon storms nor clash head-on with the vast will of the Void that loomed across the stars. He chose restraint.To fight the Void now would be to overturn the board itself—and a true chessmaster never does that when he’s just discovered there’s a wider game beyond it.Direct confrontation was the last resort.The Void’s “Primordial Wither” project was not a battle, but a cosmic reformatting—a system purge meant to overwrite existence itself.In that case, the “Primordial Land” and the unknown world that had sent its faint cry for help were like the unformatted partitions of a dying hard drive—places the Void’s code had not yet reached.Perhaps, within them, hid the true source code of the virus capable of rewriting the entire system.Viridian’s will fixed upon two sets of coordinates. One shone like a lighthouse—clear, stable, and
Chapter 125: Beyond the Chessboard — The Call from an Unknown World
Viridian’s will hovered like a dead and silent universe—vast, cold, and infinitely deep. He was ready. Ready to face the final judgment of the Void, ready to push this war that had devoured the stars to its ultimate conclusion.Yet just as he prepared to turn his will into the first blade to pierce the heart of the Void, a tremor rippled through the soul-link that bound him to Lilith.It wasn’t an alarm.It wasn’t danger.It was something far more delicate—something distant, almost trembling.Viridian’s consciousness plunged into the link.He could see it clearly now: Lilith’s radiant “Primordial Core” was releasing two distinct pulses of resonance. One was bright and steady, like a lighthouse in an endless sea, pointing directly toward the coordinates of the “Primordial Land”—the home of creation itself.The other... was faint, elusive, and heartbreakingly fragile.
Chapter 124: Unification of Laws — The Perfect Cycle of Termination and Origin
Viridian’s will withdrew from the battlefield where laws intertwined.Like the retreat of a tide, it faded silently, returning to the sealed chamber of the Saint Abyss Workshop.His body remained seated upon the metal throne, utterly motionless, as though he had never left.Yet his soul-core had undergone a transformation so vast it could no longer be measured by mortal standards.The wrath of [The Void] loomed above him like a storm of cosmic darkness—cold, suffocating, and filled with murderous intent that pressed against his awareness like the weight of infinity.Viridian ignored it.He closed his eyes calmly and began counting his spoils.A siege meant to hunt down three of the Apocalypse Knights had, in the end, become a grand feast—one devoured entirely by him.The authority of Pestilence, the law governing disease and decay, coiled within his soul like gray, venomous vines.The authority of Annihilation, born from the Inquisitor’s power to erase concepts themselves, rested like
Chapter 123: Requiem of Death — The Symphony of Origin and Termination
Viridian’s will stood like the coldest of spectators, observing a symphony of laws he himself had orchestrated.At the heart of the secret outpost, the battlefield had transcended matter, becoming a clash of concepts.From Lilith’s small frame, pure light of [Origin] poured forth endlessly. Around the Apocalypse Knight of Death, shadows of [Termination] coiled and thickened.The two forces intertwined with violent intensity.Yet there was no explosion. No thunderous roar.This was no brawl of destruction.Lilith’s awakening had not chosen resistance. She had chosen embrace.The light of Origin spread like a tide, gentle yet irresistible, flowing across Death’s domain. It did not purify darkness. It declared the existence of light.For the first time, the Apocalypse Knight of Death found his law confronted by an opponent that made no sense.His essence was deletion.Lilith’s essence wa
You may also like
Strongest Prisoners
Serrated Blade22.5K viewsMy Werewolf System
JKSManga122.4K viewsLevel Up With My Bastard System in Fantasy World
Oceanna Lee26.0K viewsThe Invincible Arthur Gardner
Herolich99.4K viewsLord Tharn Zon
krushandkill9.5K viewsTHE DEVIL'S TOY BOX-THE GAMEOF THE GODS
Scene976 viewsCounter-Love Wealth System
Abysalyounglord1.7K viewsInfinite point system
Demon slayer k738 views